


All Roads Lead to Rome

by SlowMercury



Category: James Asher Vampire Series - Barbara Hambly
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, Alternate Universe - Werewolves, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-26
Updated: 2020-12-26
Packaged: 2021-03-10 22:06:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 966
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28334340
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SlowMercury/pseuds/SlowMercury
Summary: First up, the gender swap AU you definitely didn't ask for.  (Also, they're going to Prague, not Rome.)
Relationships: James Asher & Lydia Asher & Simon Ysidro, James Asher & Simon Ysidro, James Asher/Lydia Asher
Comments: 1
Kudos: 7
Collections: Yuletide Madness 2020





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Lyrstzha](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lyrstzha/gifts).



> So I wrote this in something of a mad scramble; I hope you think it's fun and enjoyable anyway. You didn't say anything about gender swaps in your Yuletide letter but you didn't _not_ say anything about gender swaps, and I figured that was close enough to permission for Yuletide Madness.

Jenny Baincroft did not hesitate before knocking firmly on the door to Doña Ximena Ysidro’s central London residence. The time to hesitate was earlier that afternoon, when Jenny had paraded up and down Doña Ysidro’s street so that the sleeping vampire would hear her footsteps in her dreams. Or Jenny could have changed her mind yesterday, when she had gone over and over everything she knew and hadn’t been able to come up with a plan with better odds of success than begging aid from Doña Ysidro. Maybe Jenny should have hesitated a month ago, when Lloyd had asked her if she minded if he took a few months to travel to Prague and study under a prominent doctor of maladies of the blood.

Or perhaps the _real_ moment of decision was a year ago, when Jenny Baincroft had spotted the Austrian spy Ignace Karolyi meeting with the former Earl of Ernchester, and Jenny had known that she could not permit a vampire to ally himself with a foreign government.

All those chances had passed, and so Jenny did not waver now.

The sound barely faded before Doña Ysidro had the door open. Doña Ximena Ysidro was gorgeous. She was svelte, neat and several inches shorter than Jenny; her dress was a pale pink and her silver hair was twisted into a flawless, fashionable updo. She aped humanity better than almost any other vampire Jenny had encountered — and Jenny had met far, far more vampires than she ever wished to — but Doña Ximena mimicked the subtle movements of breathing and the quick blink of her eyes with a grace Jenny had learned not to expect from vampires, especially the old ones. Even without her mind powers, Doña Ximena could blend in with a crowd almost seamlessly.

“I’m sorry to disturb you, Doña Ximena,” Jenny said, after she had been granted entrance, “but something has happened to Lloyd, and I need to ask you about those who hunt the night in Prague.”

There was a moment of predator’s stillness from Doña Ximena, an unusual lapse in her camouflage, but Jenny couldn’t find it in herself to be surprised about it. Whether she admitted it or not, Jenny knew that Ysidro was at least a little in love with Lloyd. 

Jenny sympathized. She herself had fallen irrevocably in love with her redheaded, laughing husband when she realized he had figured out that Jenny collected information for the Foreign Office on her treks around the Continent, allegedly recording folk tales, and that it had never once occurred to Lloyd to tell her it was too dangerous or demanding a task for a woman.

Lloyd was the second born son of a wealthy earl; as the spare, he went to school to study medicine and focused on ailments of the blood. It was the scandal of the season when he asked Jenny to marry him, since Jenny Asher was a bookish woman of no great beauty or social standing, who was more than seven years his senior besides. Lloyd’s father disowned him, and Lloyd and Jenny were forced to rely on Lloyd’s student-doctor salary for their first years of marriage. Lloyd had worked his way up to being an acknowledged expert in his field before he unexpectedly inherited everything upon his father and older brother’s deaths in a carriage accident.

Prague’s vampires had taken Lloyd captive four days ago. It took two days for the message to reach Jenny, a day and a half of frantic planning and review of Lloyd’s scientific journals and his articles on blood viruses, and now a final night of pleading for help from Doña Ximena.

If the vampires of Prague killed her husband before Jenny could rescue him, Jenny would spend the rest of her life — however long or short that might be — destroying everyone who was responsible for it, starting with the Master of Prague and working all the way down to the rumored Others. 

Jenny might let Doña Ximena assist her, though.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a triple drabble on a topic you also didn't specifically ask for!

“Please, Lionel, tell me you were not so _imbecilic_ ,” Simon said, staring down in wide-eyed horror at the placid, redheaded toddler. Miranda. It was Miranda.

“I want’d the bitch’s cooperation, and I need’t make sure yer pets was feelin’ cooperative,” Lionel replied sullenly. “Didn’t realize, did I, not ’til I smelled the brat in person. I’m not so stupid as to court _this_ sort of disaster. Unlike you, ye daft whoreson. Ye’ve been connivin’ with degenerate animals.”

“My conniving is hardly your worriment, Protestant reprobate,” Simon returned with understated venom. “Especially after your own misdeeds."

Lionel said nothing.

Simon sighed. “I will try to help.”

When Simon lifted Miranda, shifting her onto his shoulder and running his hand soothingly along her back, Miranda giggled and batted hot, baby fingers against his face.

The Ashers lived far into the countryside; Simon couldn’t get a cab driver out there without mind tricks. When they arrived at the property gates the house was dark, and although Simon had fed and watered her, Miranda was fussing because it was well past her bedtime. 

Simon carried Miranda halfway up the walk to the door before Professor Asher appeared at the door. Simon froze instantly.

“Simon,” James called in a low voice, “I’m grateful for our dauther's safe return. But if you had anything to do with Miranda’s kidnapping, I will be very displeased with you.”

Moving slowly enough to be caught by the human eye, Simon set Miranda on the ground and gently nudged her towards her father.

“I did not,” Simon said, “but Master Lionel Grippen sends you his most sincere apologies.” He deliberately didn’t turn at the sudden, deep growl reverberating behind him until it trailed off into a canine huff.

“Hello, Mistress,” he said to an enormous black wolf with Lydia's eyes.


End file.
